Faults often occur in one or more tasks of multi-task electronic systems. An example of such a multi-task systems is the electronic system of modern automobiles. Tasks include software, such as computing modules of an onboard computer, and hardware, such as sensors or other electronic inputs to the computer, or a combination of the aforesaid, such as in the case of smart sensors.
In many instances, a fault in one task will lead to a fault in one or more other tasks of the system. When a plurality of tasks fail, it can be difficult to determine whether any of the faults were related, such as by one fault having caused another of the faults. And, if related, it can be difficult to accurately determine which fault(s), if any, correlate to which other fault(s). This challenge is complicated by the fact that fault messages initiated by an earlier-faulting task can be sent and/or received later than the sending and/or receipt of a fault message from a later-faulting task, thus making it impossible to accurately identify correlation between the faults based solely on timing of the resulting fault messages.